“BUY AMERICA BREAKTHROUGH AGREEMENT FULL OF HOLES” LIUNA Local 625.
Feb 16th 2010
“BUY AMERICA BREAKTHROUGH AGREEMENT FULL OF HOLES” LIUNA Local 625.
Canada’s provinces and territories are days away from signing onto the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Government Procurement. This was negotiated as part of Canada’s special “Buy America” exemption deal announced February 5.
“This agreement circumvents any constructive debate around the merits of domestic procurement policies that should be a hallmark of stimulus spending in Canada” states LIUNA Local 625 Business Manager Rob Petroni.
Under this agreement Canadians get temporary and partial access to a stream of stimulus spending that has largely dried up, and in return, we forever give up the ability to spur and shape job creation through policies like the local procurement provisions of the recent Green Energy Act.
“Canadians understand that massive infrastructure spending only works when you employ Canadian workers. This agreement opens up the bidding process for provincial, territorial and municipal projects that could cut Canadian workers out of the equation” said Petroni.
Details of the agreement have not been made public but reports indicate that all 13 Canadian provinces and territories will be asked to sign on to a World Trade Organization agreement that requires provinces to open up most of their procurement contracts to companies from other nations.
According to analysts, Canadian suppliers have only a brief opportunity to compete for an estimated $4 to 5 billion (U.S) of federally funded stimulus projects, representing less than 2 per cent of the approximately $275 billion (U.S) of procurement funded under the U.S. Recovery Act. In return, Canada has guaranteed U.S. suppliers access to a range of provincial and municipal infrastructure spending projects until September 2011, estimated to be valued at more than $25 billion (CAD).
“This agreement is ideologically misguided and incredibly unbalanced with Canadian companies and workers standing to loose out on ever important jobs. “This deal could affect thousands of people and their livelihoods and tie the hands of governments for years to come. We need an open debate before any government endorses an agreement Canadians have never seen.” said Petroni.
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